One of the grand traditions of the sport of rugby is the "Tour". The rugby tour started almost immediately after the laws of the sport were formalized in 1871. 
 
         At first national teams set off on tours that lasted up to three months. In fact very afternoon when Germany and England declared war in 1914, the two national teams were sitting down to dinner with each other following a match held earlier that afternoon. The two sides decided to continue their meal and let the war (at least for them) start the following day.
 
      The tradition of the rugby tour at Bowling Green started with the arrival of New Zealand born coach and rugby tour vet Bill Cotton in 1980.  At first these yearly tours, which were partially driven by the need to get some warm weather games in before the start of the spring season and took place during spring break, were entirely "domestic".  An end city was chosen – Charleston, Pensacola, New Orleans  - and the club played a game on the way down, a game there, and a game on the way back. In addition to camping in the Smokies, Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Fort Sumpter, Bourbon Street and the Pensacola Naval Air Station, the team got a chance to play schools that they normally would never get to see in a typical season – Clemson, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Duke, Louisiana State, Georgia, and the Citadel.
 
       The arrival of Brit Mark Laimbeer in 1984 and his statement, " Oh anyone can drive in England, it's easy" led to BGSU's first international tour in 1987 to Great Britain. With the assistance of Mark and his father Morgan, an art instructor at a small English College, Bowling Green laid down a pretty strong case for an up and coming rugby country by defeating the likes of Reading RFC, one of England's strongest senior men's teams at the time and the Royal Horse Artillery along with Morgan's local college. And that "easy to drive" comment?  It was to be the first and last time the club toured without relying on public transportation as two of the three rental vans had been totaled by just the tour's second day.
 
     BGSU has now completed thirteen overseas tours since then with the most recent coming every other year. The Falcons have been hosted by countries where rugby is virtually a "religion" such as Wales, Ireland, Italy, South Africa and multiple England trips. The tours have followed a successful pattern laid down since that first one in 1987 (minus the van wrecks) and the March 2023 Tour to Wales was no exception. 
 
      Each tour has on the agenda three matches against opponents ranging from college teams to academy sides on Premiership clubs, three coaching sessions and a dive into a nation's culture and historical sites. Team members can count the Coliseum, the Rock of Cashel, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Pen Y Fan mountain, Krueger National Park, the Indian Ocean, the Roman Forum, Isandlwana, and the York Minster as places they have visited along with learning how to navigate a country's customs, transportation systems and the intricacies of international travel.
 
     Those "intricacies" popped up immediately on this year's Wales Tour.  Fifty two tourists were sitting on the runway at the Detroit airport, ready to take off when the airport was suddenly shut down because of a raging snowstorm. After spending a night sleeping on the airport floor  and with airplanes nearly at capacity, everyone had to be split up to fly to London on four separate flights. 
 
      Arriving on Sunday the club was immediately bundled into a bus and driven to Cardiff Met University, for a match with the UK 2021 national champions, after 48 straight hours of traveling.
       A 50-3 loss was actually a rather respectable result after the travel snafu's. And as is typical , the two clubs sat down to a meal together and an exchange of gifts and a BGSU Rugby plaque hangs in the clubhouse of yet another overseas opponent. 
 
     Finally the tour was able to start in earnest on Monday with a tour of the Wales National Rugby Stadium, a tour of Cardiff Castle and the Welsh Craft Center and finally and afternoon of gorge scrambling.  Of course no one had heard of gorge scrambling and all the adults and players described it as a "blast". Donning wet suits groups of ten made their way up a boulder strewn narrow river that ranged from two to ten feet deep. A team building exercise, the scramble taught the participants how to solve problems that took everyone's cooperation to overcome.
 
     The next day saw everyone get a deep immersion into Welsh culture and heritage. Coal, mining and Wales are deeply connected and a 600 foot drop into the Earth for a coal mine tour demonstrated how a family ranging from boys six years old to grandfathers earned a living while fueling England's Industrial Revolution. The day ended with a tour of a reconstructed Welsh village, much along the lines of Virginia's Williamsburg.
 
     Wednesday morning featured a tour of the town of Mumbles along with the national welsh spoon center. That afternoon the club put on a rugby show that had one of Wales's top rugby universities feeling lucky to pull out a win. Taking the field against Swansea University, the Falcons kept the match doggedly close before finally falling 26-17. A couple good night's sleep had clearly made a huge difference.
 
   Thursday say another practice with local top coaches as BG was put through their paces by the staff of the Ospreys RFC. That was then followed by a tour of the Swansea Ironworks – a UNESCO site.
 
    Friday was a travel day to the trip's final destination – the town of Llanelli.  Packing themselves into wet suits again – the club was taught how to surf in the Bristol Channel. Yes -  the temperature barely registered above freezing,  and -  yes - it was snowing there for the first time in 13 years and – yes- the guys once again described the experience as a "blast".
 
    Saturday featured the final match of the tour – club that ran teams from kids six years old all the way to "golden oldies" (over 60 years old). The entire club turned out to watch as again the Falcons had the members of Carmarthen Athletic RFC feeling lucky to come away with a 19-7 victory. It was very gratifying to hear the entire Carmarthan spectators applauding BG as they left the field. Again the exchange of gifts, a well appreciated meal and then all settled into the Carmarthan clubhouse to watch Wales defeat Italy in a international match.
 
     While the whole concept of the tour and the exchange of cultures is an important reason enough alone to go on tour – there is another possibly even more important reason that has directly affected the fortunes of the BGSU RFC – that of the rugby techniques and skills acquired on the trip.  Consider the following:
2014 – tour of England – finishes 2^nd in National Championship
2016 - tour of England – finishes 2^nd in National Championship
2018 - tour of  Italy –wins National Championship
2020 – tour of England – was favored to win national championship
2023 – tour of Wales…………….
 
There is an obvious pattern and the club looks forward to a very successful fall 2023 season.